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Fifty years ago today, a British driver was breathalysed by Police for the very first time. A motorist in Shropshire was tested on suspicion of being ‘under the influence’ on 8 October 1967.

Yet, despite decades of drink drive advertising and changing public opinion, 200 people a year still die in accidents where at least one driver is over the alcohol limit, according to statistics from the Department for Transport.

The latest figures for 2015 show a 9% increase in the number of seriously injured casualties compared with the previous year - the first rise since 2011.

The total number of casualties in drink drive accidents for 2015 was 8,470 – up 3%.

The Road Safety Act of 1967 set the maximum limit at 80mg of alcohol per 100mL of blood (0.35mg of alcohol per litre of breath).

This was based on evidence that a road accident is more likely to happen at or above this level. But recent research shows that drivers are impaired below this limit.

“With just one-eighth (10mg per 100mL) of the current English limit, you are 37% more likely to be involved in a fatal road accident than when sober,” comments Hunter Abbott from the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) and Managing Director of breathalyser firm AlcoSense Laboratories.

“People are still being killed by drink driving at levels below the legal, but outdated, limit.

“We have the highest drink drive limit in the developed world. Lowering it based on newer research could save many more lives”.

Police carried out over half a million (520,219) roadside breath tests in 2015, the lowest number since data collection began in 2002. More than 60,000 drivers (one in eight of those tested) failed or refused to take the test.

Prior to 1967, the criteria for prosecution were somewhat less scientific – whether you could touch your nose with your eyes shut, walk in a straight line or stand on one leg.

The original ‘blow in the bag’ breathalyser was a relatively crude device, initially used to confirm a policeman’s suspicion that a motorist was under the influence. A subsequent blood or urine test at the police station provided the evidential proof.

The fuel cell alcohol sensor was later developed, an electronic device that transformed the process of screening by providing the police with a quick test to accurately quantify the driver’s alcohol level at the kerbside. For prosecution a second evidential test needed to take place at the station using a second, more precise method than used at the scene.

Until the Nineties this involved blood or urine testing at the station which required a doctor to be called out to take the sample. If a doctor was unavailable, sometimes a driver could escape prosecution. The process was dramatically simplified with the invention of evidential infra-red breath testing at the station, offering comparable accuracy to blood testing - removing the need for a doctor to be called out and improving the prosecution rate.

“But in the first 12 months alone, there were 1000 fewer deaths and 11,000 fewer serious injuries on the roads – proving that the use of the ‘Drunk-O-Meter’ was both necessary and justified.

“There are still more than 5,000 accidents a year where at least one driver is over the alcohol limit, and nearly a fifth of drink drive convictions are the morning after the night before.

"The only way to tell when you’re safe to drive the next day is either to abstain completely or to use an accurate personal breathalyser.”

The AlcoSense Excel (available from Halfords priced £99.99) features a smaller version of the sensor used by several UK Police forces, making it highly reliable, and gives detailed readings of either your blood or breath alcohol concentrations.